Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls was held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states. All 20 seats of Kerala went to polls besides 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, 8 seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, 6 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 5 seats each in Assam and Bihar, 3 seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and 1 seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir. Though voting was held for 89 seats in the second phase, polling for the Betul seat in Madhya Pradesh has been rescheduled to the third phase due to the death of a candidate from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
However, there are a few seats where the contest is only between the BJP and the Congress.
In Karnataka, there is a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress in Udupi-Chikmagalur between Kota Srinivas Poojary (BJP) and K Jayaprakash Hegde; Govind Karjol (BJP) and BN Chandrappa (Congress) in Chitradurga; Dr K Sudhakar (BJP) and MS Raksha Ramaiah (Congress) in Chikkballapur; Dr CN Manjunath (BJP) and DK Suresh (Congress) in Bangalore Rural. In a high voltage contest, it is Tejasvi Surya (BJP) and Sowmya Reddy (Congress) in Bangalore South. In Bangalore Central, it is PC Mohan (BJP) against Mansoor Ali Khan (Congress), in Bangalore North it is Shobha Karandlaje (BJP) against MV Rajeev Gowda (Congress); in Dakshina Kannada it is Captain Brijesh Chowta (BJP) vs Padmaraj R Poojary (Congress) and in Chamarajnagar it is S Balaraj (BJP) vs Sunil Bose (Congress). However, in 5 other seats, it is Congress vs JDS, which is backed by the BJP.
In the Jammu seat, the contest is between Jugal Kishore Sharma (BJP) and Raman Bhalla (Congress). Assam's Diphu (Autonomous District) seat will see a direct contest between Amarsing Tisso (BJP) and Joy Ram Engleng (Congress).
Rajasthan in the second phase of polling is going to witness a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress in as many as 11 seats including that in Kota between Om Birla (BJP) and Prahlad Gunjal (Congress). Lumbaram Choudhary (BJP) and Vaibhav Gehlot (Congress) in Jalore; Dushyant Singh (BJP) against Urmila Jain Bhaya (Congress) in Jhalawar-Baran; Bhagirath Choudhary (BJP) vs Ramchandra Choudhary (Congress) in Ajmer; PP Chaudhary (BJP) vs Sangeeta Beniwal (Congress) in Pali. In another high-level contest, it will be Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (BJP) against Karan Singh Uchiyarda (Congress) in Jodhpur; Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria (BJP) vs Harish Chandra Meena (Congress) in Tonk-Sawai Madhopur. In Bhilwara, it will be Damodar Agarwal (BJP) vs CP Joshi (Congress), in Rajsamand Mahima Kumari Vishweshwar Singh Mewar (BJP) has been pitted against Dr Damodar Gurjar (Congress); in Chittorgarh, Chandra Prakash Joshi (BJP) against Udai Lal Anjana (Congress) and in Udaipur it will be Manna Lal Rawat (BJP) against Tarachand Meena (Congress).
In Chhattisgarh, Bhojraj Nag (BJP) is up against Biresh Thakur (Congress) in Kanker seat; in Rajnandgaon, it will be Santosh Pandey (BJP) against Bhupesh Baghel (Congress) and in Mahasamund it is Roop Kumari Choudhary (BJP) vs Tamradhwaj Sahu (Congress).
Madhya Pradesh in the second phase of polling is going to witness a direct fight between BJP and Congress in five seats including in Tikamgarh between Virendra Kumar Khatik (BJP) and Pankaj Ahirwar (Congress); in Damoh between Rahul Singh Lodhi (BJP) and Tarvar Singh Lodhi (Congress); in Tikamgarh between Virendra Kumar Khatik (BJP) and Pankaj Ahirwar (Congress); in Satna between Ganesh Singh (BJP) and Siddharth Sukhlal Kushwaha (Congress). In Rewa the contest is between Janardan Mishra (BJP) and Neelam Abhay Mishra (Congress) and in Hoshangabad the fight is between Darshan Singh Choudhary (BJP) and Sanjay Sharma (Congress).
